Embeded driver for an electronic device

ABSTRACT

An electronics module with driver information electronically associated therein. The driver information may be in a memory on the electronics module. The memory may store drivers for multiple operating systems, including a virtual machine type operating system that can be used with any processor or operating system that can run the virtual machine. The memory may alternatively store website information, e.g., an address of the website and codes to use on the website to get the right driver and to validate the hardware.

This application claims priority from provisional application No. 60/566,465, filed Apr. 30, 2005, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Electronic devices, especially those for use in computers, often require a driver file. The driver provides information that allows components of the computer and/or operating system to communicate with the electronic device. For example, taking the most common computers and architecture based computer using a Microsoft™ operating system, the operating system often includes drivers for the most common devices, with other drivers being installed from a disk. Plug-and-play operating systems allow the operating system to automatically find the device, and if a driver is available, to automatically install that driver.

When devices such as network cards or video cards are sold, they often include a driver disk to use in installing the device.

Driver disks may be inconvenient, for many reasons. It adds cost to the device, since it is an extra item that needs to be added to the package. It is easy to lose the disk. Some computers, especially small sized computers, do not have internal drives for disks.

The drivers are also often maintained on a web site. However, this requires the owner of the device to find and navigate that web site in order to determine the right location, download the driver, and install it. However, this presupposes that the user has Internet access. For example, if the driver is for a display module or a network driver, the user may not have Internet access, or even computer access, prior to the installation of the hardware.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure describes a system for embedding a driver within the actual hardware, e.g. on the card itself. According to an aspect, a number of different kinds of drivers and driver types are embedded within some hardware that is located on the card. According to another aspect, web site information is maintained, as well as write information, enabling the most recent driver to be written into special parts of the card.

An embodiment is shown in FIG. 1. A personal computer 99 is formed by a number of hardware devices, with only the microprocessor 100 being shown. Microprocessor 100 may by itself, or through an auxiliary chip, drive an expansion bus, here the PCI bus 102. In the example given, the microprocessor 100 is running an operating system shown as 105 which may be a plug-and-play type operating system, e.g., one available from Microsoft.

A circuit card 110 includes some expansion capabilities via hardware 115. The expansion capabilities can be for example network capabilities display capabilities for any other type of capabilities. However, in order for the operating system 105 and microprocessor 100 to use the capabilities of circuit 115, there must be a file that describes the characteristics of the circuit 115. A driver is typically used for this purpose.

In this environment, a special memory portion 120 is also located on the card 110. The memory 120 may be a combination of read-only memory and rewritable memory. The specific architecture within driver memory 120 may be as shown in FIG. 2. In a first portion, this may include a driver 205 for the most commonly used operating system, here the Windows x86 operating system. This driver may be stored in read only memory or rewritable memory. Another driver, 210, may be a virtual machine driver. A virtual machine driver according to this aspect may be a driver that was written for a hypothetical computer environment, e.g., a hypothetical processor and/or operating system, e.g., a processor such as for the Java virtual machine. Since the driver will run on this virtual processor, any computer which can run the virtual machine simulator can also run the hardware 115 using this driver. Certain kinds of virtual machine processing is known.

Another portion of the memory shown as 215 includes website information that is information pointing to a website of the board manufacturer. This may be a link to the most recent version of the driver for the card. Also a hardwired portion 220 may be provided, with a code. This code may represent information about the specific hardware, including a serial number. The website can review this code to determine the proper driver to be returned. Also, this code can be used to prevent the use of so-called gray goods, as explained in another embodiment described herein.

In operation, the operating system, when looking for a driver for the device, looks first into the driver chip contents 120. If an appropriate driver is obtained from those contents, then that driver is used to operate the circuit 115. If no proper driver is obtained, then the system investigates whether a virtual machine driver is available, and if not whether website information is available. In this way, no external drivers may need to be installed.

In another embodiment, the Virtual Machine driver is installed as a temporary measure, to get the hardware working well enough so that the computer can otherwise operate, to allow finding a more specific driver. As an alternative to a Virtual machine driver, any generic driver can be used; that is any driver that may allow driving the hardware in many different environments.

In another embodiment, a system is formed that can prevent counterfeiting and gray goods. According to this system, it is contemplated that a special driver for the device is necessary for each installation. The device includes an onboard memory including website information shown as 310, and a special code shown as 312. The code represents the source of goods, that is it represents at least the serial number of the device and its authorized countries.

When the operating system installs the device, it follows the steps described herein. First, in order to obtain a driver, the operating system gets the information from the chip 300. The information includes a link to a website of the manufacturer. The operating system does not maintain any kind of driver for this device, but rather relies solely on the website to provide the driver. Alternatively, the operating system may have a driver, but requires the website to validate either the driver, or some running characteristic of the hardware.

The operating system provides both the information and the code to the website. In addition, the website determines from the mode of access, where the request is coming from. For example, this may be done by reverse DNS lookup or other features of determining the location from which the access was initiated. The website then consults its internal database to determine whether the information about the specific hardware matches with the location being requested. If so, it returns a driver via a download to the operating system for use in driving the hardware. If not, the website determines an error, which may include information indicating that the hardware is being used outside of its desired location.

In order to ensure that the hardware would still be usable if the manufacturer went out of business, either a driver, or a special unlock code, could be placed in escrow.

Other implementations are within the disclosed embodiment. 

1. A device for use in a computer comprising a circuit which is operable from the computer; and a memory, associated with said circuit, and within a same physical package as said circuit, storing information that is related to a driver which is used for said computer to operate said circuit.
 2. A system as in claim 1, wherein said memory stores a driver for a specific operating system, and also a driver for a virtual machine that can be run by many different operating systems.
 3. A system as in claim 1, wherein said memory stores information about accessing a web site over a publicly available network to obtain a driver.
 4. The system as in claim 1, wherein said memory stores a temporary driver that allows said circuit to operate, and also stores information in said circuit which allows obtaining a permanent driver from an external source.
 5. A system as in claim 1, also stores information in said circuit which allows obtaining a permanent driver from an external source and further comprising a secret code stored in said memory which identifies the hardware to an external source.
 6. A system as in claim 1, wherein said memory stores a plurality of different drivers.
 7. A method, comprising: obtaining a circuit that is operable by a computer; and associating an electronic memory on with the circuit, said memory including information related to a driver that drives said circuit.
 8. A method as in claim 7, wherein said information is a driver file for said circuit.
 9. A method as in claim 8 wherein said driver is a virtual machine driver that allows said circuit to be accessed via a simulation running on a processor.
 10. A method as in claim 7, wherein said information comprises information about website addresses, and further comprising using said information for accessing a web site to obtain a driver.
 11. A method as in claim 10, wherein said information to access the web site further includes a code identifying said circuit, and wherein said using comprises presenting said code to said website.
 12. A method as in claim 8, further comprising storing drivers for a plurality of different operating systems within said memory.
 13. A method as in claim 12, wherein one of said operating systems is a virtual operating system that is compiled for a hypothetical computer environment.
 14. A method, comprising: obtaining an electronic device which includes electronic circuitry thereon, forming a memory on said electronic circuitry and storing electronic information in said memory that identifies said electronic circuitry; using said electronic information to access a validation web site for said electronic device, said validation web site determining a location from which validation is requested, and determining whether said code is an authorized code for said validation; and said web site returning information indicative of proper operation only if said code is authorized for said location from which validation is requested.
 15. A method as in claim 14, wherein said information indicative of proper operation is an authorized driver for said device.
 16. A method as in claim 14, wherein said information indicative of proper operation is an electronic file which allows said device to properly operate.
 17. A method as in claim 14, wherein said determining the location is carried out by reverse DNS lookup.
 18. A device as in claim 16, further comprising preventing an operating system from loading a proper driver until said validation web site has returned said code indicative of proper operation.
 19. A method as in claim 15, wherein said validation includes validating a location at which said hardware will be used.
 20. A method as in claim 15, wherein said authorized driver includes a driver that is operational for a hypothetical computer environment. 